loving living

Category Archives: Jingheng

Although it can be very trying spending so much time with big one at home, especially when he’s in his devilish moods, it is nonetheless very rewarding to watch him grow up day by day.

His class is currently practicing a dance routine for the “grandmas and grandpas” at a nursing home next week, and we failed to lure him to dance for us. But as you never know with kids, he offered to do the entire routine after watching a video of the song. Thus I spent a very enjoyable half hour on Tuesday, watching and filming him dance at home, and he absolutely tickled himself watching himself on video. In fact, it spurred him to go crazier with each take and replace the proper moves with his own free style interpretations.

Here’s Take 2. A not-so-crazy version where some proper actions are still visible.

Like this:

Even though I’m not the best performer as I shook my booty and hands ever so gently (you know I hate strange crowds and it was a really hot morning!), Daddy and mummy said they were very proud of me (1) not crying, (2) stayed on stage, and (3) I remembered to move into “small group” for a new formation midway!

Like this:

We are back on track. Little Boy is effectively potty-trained for pee. In two short weeks since mid May, he has been diaper-free (except bedtime) and wearing boy briefs.

Do you like my dino briefs?

Aw, thank you, I know it’s cute!

Ooh, saggy butt

After he donned his potty as a party hat in Feb but still refused to pee in it, I decided to abort all training attempts. Grandies couldn’t succeed either when they, on occasions, let him go butt-naked. It just didn’t work, even though he totally understood the concept. He simply peed on himself, beckoned you to clean up his mess and continued about his playing. I was quite half-hearted by then, and figured that when he goes to school, peer pressure + kids’ copycat ability + patient teachers should help me accomplish the mission in half the time and with double the ease (for me).

I was lucky I didn’t have wait till then. Two weeks ago, Little Boy had a play date with Lucas. Eve was in the midst of potty training Lucas and to great success. Her secret – Lucas gets one M&M each time he successfully pee/poo in the potty.

(Photo from Eve’s blog) Lucas: Me and potty, we’re good…

Little Boy had curiously followed Lucas’ entire routine, eyes shining at the doling of M&Ms and even scored one from Eve for being a play date visitor. He was definitely interested. Now, I had seen the same trick on pinterest, but given my shut-down mode, I dismissed it as a great idea that probably won’t work for Little Boy now.

I recounted all these to the hubby, who very opportunistically said, why wait, we should ride on the wave! 打铁趁热! So that very same night, we bought a box of M&Ms, explained to Little Boy that he will no longer be wearing diapers, we will reward him one choc every time he pees in the pot, but no choc if he pees on his pants or anywhere else.

IT WORKED! At first, we had to put him to the pot every two hours in case he peed on himself. Sometimes he had sit on the potty for 5-10 minutes before he leaked. Within a week, he learnt to tell us of his urge and was less shy to watch the action. In the next week, he could pee-on-demand and you could see his little stomach muscles crunching. The M&Ms were like magic, he could pee almost immediately if we allowed him to hold the M&M box and opened the lid to show him the little colour balls.

Amazing, what the right incentive and timing can achieve. Hubby, many pats for being really clever!

We’ve had some expected oops on the first few days, but Little Boy grasped the whole routine quite quickly and learnt to inform us of his urge and could hold in his pee before we reach the potty. He was even diaper-free during his afternoon naps within a week, a milestone I never expected him to reach so soon.

We have already completed a Sundown by now, it’s that far by my low standards.

Lessons/ Tips:

Little Boy pees every 2 to 3 hours.

Joyce’s idea of a mobile potty to keep potty-training consistent both at home and outside is simply brilliant. I had witnessed its success with Jeston, and was impressed with it all over again for my own boy. I got a cheap Daiso plastic cup/shaker with lid which I told Little Boy it was also his potty and the M&Ms were his if he peed inside. He pees about 5-6 times a day, so I carry the cup in my bag, and he can pee anywhere, anytime and I don’t worry if I can’t find a toilet. I feel the consistency offered by the portable potty is also a reason why Little Boy accelerated into being comfortable with peeing without a diaper.

Further tweaks: (1) Adding used tissue in the cup makes it a little easier to keep the container spill-free if you don’t have the chance to pour away the contents easily while on the go. (2) If pesky urine smell is a concern, some water in the cup will dilute the pee and reduce odour level.

We think you are the culprit

Rewards: M&Ms works for us, but do go for the mini M&Ms. We started out with regular-sized ones with peanuts by mistake, and since we didn’t want to retract while the training was going unexpectedly well, Little Boy had an average of 5 nutty choc for a few consecutive days and ended up horribly constipated. We think that’s probably too much chocolate and nuts for a little body to handle.

We have passed the first hurdle of Pee. The biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that you really can’t force kids. When they’re ready to move on to the next milestone, they will simply be ready for you and every step will be a breeze. So I’m not concerned about challenging the last hurdle of Total Diaper-Free Days (i.e. go commando during bedtime) now. The hubby is working hard on hurdle number two of Poo, throwing in huge stakes to entice Little Boy – Daddy will buy him one animal each time he poops in the potty. He knows it very well – he recites to the family “在potty大便就可以买动物了” every now and then – and has been happily anticipating. To date, we’ve only caught it once so we have some distance to cover. This is a tough one for Little Boy because I feel he has grown accustomed to poop in the diaper standing up (and hugging someone at the same time!), and a little shy/ wary about the potty for this purpose.